Premier Centre for the Arts rings in New Year with annual Holiday Cabaret and party

For its third annual year, the Premier Centre for the Arts will usher families into the New Year through festive songs, dance and scrumptious nibbles during its New Year's Eve party on Monday, which will include Holiday Cabaret.

For its third annual year, the Premier Centre for the Arts will usher families into the New Year through festive songs, dance and scrumptious nibbles during its New Year's Eve party on Monday, which will include Holiday Cabaret.

Featuring a night's worth of Christmas tunes, Holiday Cabaret will kickoff Thursday with show dates running through New Year's Eve.

Holiday Cabaret director Nick Manerchia, 23, of Newark, discussed what he has up his sleeve for this year's show. He also touched on a unique aspect of the New Year's Eve party that families really enjoy.

Q What songs will we hear at this year's Holiday Cabaret?

A We're doing the classics like "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree," "All I Want for Christmas is You," "Let it Snow," "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" — a lot of the classic Christmas songs. I've directed it the last three years, and Christmas songs are Christmas songs. They're pretty much the same thing — you have classic songs — so I try to change it up each year. This year we're doing some different versions of holiday songs like "Last Christmas" by Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber's "Mistletoe."

Q Have you tweaked any of the songs?

A For "Joy To the World" we're doing a mash-up, and we're doing that song with another version that I forgot the name of. This year there's also more of a storyline to the show — it's not just song, song, song, song, song. The theme of it is a Christmas pageant, and there will be funny characters in it. I tried to make it more fun for people.

Q Do you have a favorite Christmas tune?

A I love them all, to be honest. I love Christmas music period. I listen to it throughout the whole year. I listen to it in July. Seriously, I love Christmas music; it makes me feel happy.

Q What can guests expect at the New Year's Eve party?

A Everyone will come at 7 p.m. and then after the Holiday Cabaret show there will be hors d'oeuvres, party favors, a DJ and dance music. And then we do an early countdown at 10 p.m. with a champagne toast. That's why people love it so much, because it's not a late thing; we're done by 10:30 p.m., and they're home before the chaos starts.